Why did you see the need to adjust them in the first place? Once properly
set up they are self adjusting with a significant amount of tolerance. If
they should need an adjustment something is wrong.

One thing to be aware of is that there will be a wear pattern-groove on the
valve adjusting screws. Adjusting the screws and miss matching the groove
can cause the valve stem and screw to wear rapidly.

As has been posted it is common for the lifters to get air bound and make a
lot of racket. The fix for this is really to let the engine run until the
oil is warm and then either drive it or rev the engine at 3,000 to 4,000 rpm
to get the lifters pass oil and pump up. While adjusting you will be able to
feel the ones that are soft. You need to be careful during adjusting that
you don't miss take the slack being taken out of the pushrod for bottoming
out the lifter.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Dan Barrett
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 2:08 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: valve adj.: lower compression, valvetrain noise remains

Folks:

I'm adjusting the valves on my ten year old Boston Bob 2.1 with about
60,000 mi on it.  I followed Ben's guide
(http://benplace.com/1700valves.htm) and tightened the adjusting screws 1-2
turns in past zero lash.  This helped a lot, adding 20lbs.
of compression on cylinders 1 and 2, making the engine easier to start, and
idling closer to 900 rpm than it had been.

But, two problems: first, cylinders 3 and 4 lost about 15lbs. of compression
each.  Second, I still have a lot of valvetrain noise from both sides of the
engine.

Do the results on cylinders 3 and 4 mean that I've moved the adjusting
screws too far in and need to back out towards zero lash?  And is the
valvetrain noise just the way things are with a broken-in boxer?

Best,
d.